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Cancer Diagnostics Company, On-Q-ity, Raises $21M in Series A Funding for the Development of Technologies to Personalize Cancer Therapy

Posted on: Tuesday, 3 November 2009, 09:04 CST

WALTHAM, Mass, Nov. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- On-Q-ity, a next-generation oncology diagnostics company focused on improving cancer therapy effectiveness, announced today that it has closed a $21 million series A financing. The funding was led by MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures and included Bessemer Venture Partners, Physic Ventures and Northgate Capital.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070702/AQM026LOGO)

On-Q-ity is developing diagnostics to determine optimal treatment choice for cancer patients at each stage of the treatment cycle - from the first therapy choice to monitoring for recurrence. The company's novel circulating tumor cell (CTC) technology and predictive biomarker platform allows for the analysis of tumor tissue samples as well as the capture of rare tumors cells that are circulating in a cancer patient's blood. Those cells are then monitored for molecular changes that are characteristic of therapy response. This combination enables minimally invasive real-time data on a patient's status - allowing treatment adjustments before changes are visible with any other technology.

Mara Aspinall is President and Chief Executive Officer of On-Q-ity and a leader in the fields of diagnostics, oncology and personalized medicine. Formerly president of Genzyme Genetics, she expanded the business' scope and market reach to become one of the nation's largest diagnostic laboratories. She described On-Q-ity's technology as a paradigm shift in cancer care, explaining, "We will enable physicians to confidently choose effective therapy and then actively monitor their patients' treatment response or resistance. By using CTCs and predictive DNA repair biomarkers, we can help quickly determine if a therapy is working and reduce the cost as well as the loss of critical time associated with ineffective treatments. Through ongoing personalized diagnosis, we hope to improve patient care and, ultimately, increase survival rates."

Sue Siegel, MDV Partner and On-Q-ity board member, added, "Mara has been at the forefront of personalized medicine and has a proven ability to bring new diagnostics to market. We are excited that the combination of a strong seasoned team and On-Q-ity's arsenal of proprietary technologies can play a key role in our nation's war on cancer and improve patient care while reducing healthcare costs."

In addition to Siegel, Steve Kraus from Bessemer Venture Partners and Dion Madsen from Physic Ventures will join the On-Q-ity board of directors.

About On-Q-ity

On-Q-ity is a next-generation diagnostics company focused on transforming cancer treatment and improving treatment outcomes for cancer patients. The Company is developing innovative diagnostics to identify the unique characteristics of an individual's cancer, predicting the response to therapy, and monitoring the progress of treatment. On-Q-ity was formed earlier this year through the merger of Cellective DX, a developer of microfluidics devices to detect and capture rare circulating tumor cells from the blood of cancer patients, with The DNA Repair Company, a molecular diagnostics company developing biomarker panels to predict response to cancer therapy based on DNA repair pathways in tumors.

The company's CTC and biomarker technologies originated from ground-breaking research at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and MIT, respectively. The privately-held company, headquartered in Waltham, MA, is funded by Bessemer Venture Partners, MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures, Physic Ventures and Northgate Capital. For more information, visit: www.On-Q-ity.com.

SOURCE MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures

Source: PR Newswire

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